[A.D. 110-172.] It was my first
intention to make this author a
mere appendix to his master, Justin Martyr; for he stands in an
equivocal position, as half Father and half heretic. His good seems to
have been largely due to Justin's teaching and influence. One may trust
that his falling away, in the decline of life, is attributable to
infirmity of mind and body; his severe asceticism countenancing this
charitable thought. Many instances of human frailty, which the
experience of ages has taught Christians to view with compassion rather
than censure, are doubtless to be ascribed to mental aberration and
decay. Early Christians had not yet been taught this lesson; for,
socially, neither Judaism nor Paganism had wholly surrendered their
un-loving influences upon their minds. Moreover, their high valuation
of discipline, as an essential condition of self-preservation amid the
fires of surrounding scorn and hatred, led them to practice, perhaps
too sternly, upon offenders, what they often heroically performed upon
themselves -- the amputation of the scandalous hand, or the plucking
out of the evil eye.

In Tatian, another Assyrian
follows the Star of Bethlehem, from
Euphrates and the Tigris. The scanty facts of his personal history are
sufficiently detailed by the translator, in his Introductory Note. We
owe to himself the pleasing story of his conversion from heathenism.
But I think it important to qualify the impressions the translation may
otherwise leave upon the student's mind, by a little more sympathy with
the better side of his character, and a more just statement of his
great services to the infant Church.

His works, which were very
numerous, have perished, in
consequence of his lapse from orthodoxy. Give him due credit for his
Diatessaron, of which the very name is a valuable testimony to the Four
Gospels as recognized by the primitive churches. It is lost, with the
"infinite number" of other books which St. Jerome attributes to him.
All honor to this earliest harmonist for such a work; and let us
believe, with Mill and other learned authorities, that, if Eusebius had
seen the work he censures, he might have expressed himself more
charitably concerning it.

We know something of Tatian,
already, from the melancholy pages
of Irenaeus. Theodoret finds no other fault with his Diatessaron than
its omission of the genealogies, which he, probably, could not
harmonize on any theory of his own. The errors into which he fell in
his old age [1] were so absurd, and so contrary to the Church's
doctrine and discipline, that he could not be tolerated as one of the
faithful, without giving to the heathen new grounds for the malignant
slanders with which they were ever assailing the Christians. At the
same time, let us reflect, that his fall is to be attributed to
extravagant ideas of that encraty which is a precept of the Gospel, and
which a pure abhorrence of pagan abominations led many of the orthodox
to praxes with extreme rigidity. And this is the place to say, once for
all, that the figures of Elijah upon Mt. Carmel and of John Baptist in
the wilderness, approved by our Lord's teachings, but moderated, as a
lesson to others, by his own holy but less austere example, justify the
early Church in making room for the two classes of Christians which
must always be found in earnest religion, and which seem to have their
warrant in the fundamental constitution of human nature. There must be
men like St. Paul, living in the world, though not of it; and there
must be men like the Baptist, of whom the world will say, "he hath a
devil." Marvelously the early Catholics were piloted between the rocks
and the whirlpools, in the narrow drift of the Gospel; and always the
Holy Spirit of counsel and might was their guardian, amid their
terrible trials and temptations. This must suggest, to every reflecting
mind, a gratitude the most profound. To preserve evangelical encraty,
and to restrain fanatical asceticism, was the spirit of early
Christianity, as one sees in the ethics of Hermas. But the awful
malaria of Montanism was even now rising like a fog of the marshes, and
was destined to leave its lasting impress upon Western Christianity;
"forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats." Our
author, alas, laid the egg which Tertullian hatched, and invented terms
which that great author raised to their highest power; for he was
rather the disciple of Tatian than of the Phrygians, though they
kindled his strange fire. After Tertullian, the whole subject of
marriage became entangled with sophistries, which have ever since
adhered to the Latin churches, and introduced the most corrosive
results into the vitals of individuals and of nations. Southey
suggests, that, in the Roman Communion, John Wesley would have been
accommodated with full scope for his genius, and canonized as a saint,
while his Anglican mother had no place for him. [1] But, on the other
hand, let us reflect that while Rome had no place for Wiclif and Hus,
or Jerome of Prague, she has used and glorified and canonized many
fanatics whose errors were far more disgraceful than those of Tatian
and Tertullian. In fact, she would have utilized and beatified these
very enthusiasts, had they risen in the Middle Ages, to combine their
follies with equal extravagance in persecuting the Albigenses, while
aggrandizing the papal ascendency.

I have enlarged upon the equivocal
character of Tatian with
melancholy interest, because I shall make sparing use of notes, in
editing his sole surviving work, pronounced by Eusebius his
masterpiece. I read it with sympathy, admiration, and instruction. I
enjoy his biting satire of heathenism, his Pauline contempt for all
philosophy save that of the Gospel, his touching reference to his own
experiences, and his brilliant delineation of Christian innocence and
of his own emancipation from the seductions of a deceitful and
transient world. In short, I feel that Tatian deserves critical
editing, in the original, at the hand and heart of some expert who can
thoroughly appreciate his merits, and his relations to primitive
Christianity.

The following is the original
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE:

We learn from several sources that
Tatian was an Assyrian, but
know nothing very definite either as to the time or place of his birth.
Epiphanius (Hoer, xlvi.) declares that he was a native of Mesopotamia;
and we infer from other ascertained facts regarding him, that he
flourished about the middle of the second century. He was at first an
eager student of heathen literature, and seems to have been especially
devoted to researches in philosophy. But he found no satisfaction in
the bewildering mazes of Greek speculation, while he became utterly
disgusted with what heathenism presented to him under the name of
religion. In these circumstances, he happily met with the sacred books
of the Christians, and was powerfully attracted by the purity of morals
which these inculcated, and by the means of deliverance from the
bondage of sin which they revealed. He seems to have embraced
Christianity at Rome, where he became acquainted with Justin Martyr,
and enjoyed the instructions of that eminent teacher of the Gospel.
After the death of Justin, Tatian unfortunately fell under the
influence of the Gnostic heresy, and founded an ascetic sect, which,
from the rigid principles it professed, was called that of the
Encratites, that is, "The self-controlled," or, "The masters of
themselves." Tatian latterly established himself at Antioch, and
acquired a considerable number of disciples, who continued after his
death to be distinguished by the practice of those austerities which he
had enjoined. The sect of the Encratites is supposed to have been
established about A.D. 166, and Tatian appears to have died some few
years afterwards.

The only extant work of Tatian is
his "Address to the Greeks."
It is a most unsparing and direct exposure of the enormities of
heathenism. Several other works are said to have been composed by
Tatian; and of these, a Diatessaron, or Harmony of the Four Gospels, is
specially mentioned. His Gnostic views led him to exclude from the
continuous narrative of our Lord's life, given in this work, all those
passages which bear upon the incarnation and true humanity of Christ.
Not withstanding this defect, we cannot but regret the loss of this
earliest Gospel harmony; but the very title it bore is important, as
showing that the Four Gospels, and these only, were deemed
authoritative about the middle of the second century.

Address of Tatian to the
Greeks

Chapter I: the Greeks Claim,
Without Reason, the Invention
of the Arts

BE not, O Greeks, so very
hostilely disposed towards the
Barbarians, nor look with ill will on their opinions. For which of your
institutions has not been derived from the Barbarians? The most eminent
of the Telmessians invented the art of divining by dreams; the Carians,
that of prognosticating by the stars; the Phrygians and the most
ancient Isaurians, augury by the flight of birds; the Cyprians, the art
of inspecting victims. To the Babylonians you owe astronomy; to the
Persians, magic; to the Egyptians, geometry; to the Phoenicians,
instruction by alphabetic writing. Cease, then, to miscall these
imitations inventions of your own. Orpheus, again, taught you poetry
and song; from him, too, you learned the mysteries. The Tuscans taught
you the plastic art; from the annals of the Egyptians you learned to
write history; you acquired the art of playing the flute from Marsyas
and Olympus,--these two rustic Phrygians constructed the harmony of the
shepherd's pipe. The Tyrrhenians invented the trumpet; the Cyclopes,
the smith's art; and a woman who was formerly a queen of the Persians,
as Hellanicus tells us, the method of joining together epistolary
tablets:, her name was Atossa. Wherefore lay aside this conceit, and be
not ever boasting of your elegance of diction; for, while you applaud
yourselves, your own people will of course side with you. But it
becomes a man of sense to wait for the testimony of others, and it
becomes men to be of one accord also in the pronunciation of their
language. But, as matters stand, to you alone it has happened not to
speak alike even in common intercourse; for the way of speaking among
the Dorians is not the same as that of the inhabitants of Attica, nor
do the Aeolians speak like the Ionians. And, since such a discrepancy
exists where it ought not to be, I am at a loss whom to call a Greek.
And, what is strangest of all, you hold in honor expressions not of
native growth, and by the intermixture of barbaric words have made your
language a medley. On this account we have renounced your wisdom,
though I was once a great proficient in it; for, as the comic poet [2]
says, "These are gleaners' grapes and small talk," Twittering places of
swallows, corrupters of art.

Yet those who eagerly pursue it
shout lustily, and croak like
so many ravens. You have, too, contrived the art of rhetoric to serve
injustice and slander, selling the free power of your speech for hire,
and often representing the same thing at one time as right, at another
time as not good. The poetic art, again, you employ to describe
battles, and the amours of the gods, and the corruption of the soul.

Chapter II: The Vices and
Errors of the Philosophers

What noble thing have you produced
by your pursuit of
philosophy? Who of your most eminent men has been free from vain
boasting? Diogenes, who made such a parade of his independence with his
tub, was seized with a bowel complaint through eating a raw polypus,
and so lost his life by gluttony. Aristippus, walking about in a purple
robe, led a profligate life, in accordance with his professed opinions.
Plato, a philosopher, was sold by Dionysius for his gormandizing
propensities. And Aristotle, who absurdly placed a limit to Providence
and made happiness to consist in the things which give pleasure, quite
contrary to his duty as a preceptor flattered Alexander, forgetful that
he was but a youth; and he, showing how well he had learned the lessons
of his master, because his friend would not worship him shut him up and
carried him about like a bear or a leopard He in fact obeyed strictly
the precepts of his teacher in displaying manliness and courage by
feasting, and transfixing with his spear his intimate and most beloved
friend, and then, under a semblance of grief, weeping and starving
himself, that he might not incur the hatred of his friends. I could
laugh at those also who in the present day adhere to his
tenets,--people who say that sublunary things are not under the care of
Providence; and so, being nearer the earth than the moon, and below its
orbit, they themselves look after what is thus left uncared for; and as
for those who have neither beauty, nor wealth, nor bodily strength, nor
high birth, they have no happiness, according to Aristotle. Let such
men philosophize, for me!

Chapter III: Ridicule of the
Philosophers

I cannot approve of Heraclitus,
who, being self-taught and
arrogant, said, "I have explored myself." Nor can I praise him for
hiding his poem [1] in the temple of Artemis, in order that it might be
published afterwards as a mystery; and those who take an interest in
such things say that Euripides the tragic poet came there and read it,
and, gradually learning it by heart, carefully handed down to posterity
this darkness [2] of Heraclitus. Death, however, demonstrated the
stupidity of this man; for, being attacked by dropsy, as he had studied
the art of medicine as well as philosophy, he plastered himself with
cow-dung, which, as it hardened, contracted the flesh of his whole
body, so that he was pulled in pieces, and thus died. Then, one cannot
listen to Zeno, who declares that at the conflagration the same man
will rise again to perform the same actions as before; for instance,
Anytus and Miletus to accuse, Busiris to murder his guests, and
Hercules to repeat his labours; and in this doctrine of the
conflagration he introduces more wicked than just persons--one Socrates
and a Hercules, and a few more of the same class, but not many, for the
bad will be found far more numerous than the good. And according to him
the Deity will manifestly be the author of evil, dwelling in sewers and
worms, and in the perpetrators of impiety. The eruptions of fire in
Sicily, moreover, confute the empty boasting of Empedocles, in that,
though he was no god, he falsely almost gave himself out for one. I
laugh, too, at the old wife's talk of Pherecydes, and the doctrine
inherited from him by Pythagoras, and that of Plato, an imitation of
his, though some think otherwise. And who would give his approval to
the cynogamy of Crates, and not rather, repudiating the wild and tumid
speech of those who resemble him, turn to the investigation of what
truly deserves attention? Wherefore be not led away by the solemn
assemblies of philosophers who are no philosophers, who dogmatize one
against the other, though each one vents but the crude fancies of the
moment. They have, moreover, many collisions among themselves; each one
hates the other; they indulge in conflicting opinions, and their
arrogance makes them eager for the highest places. It would better
become them, moreover, not to pay court to kings unbidden, nor to
flatter men at the head of affairs, but to wait till the great ones
come to them.

Chapter IV: The Christian
Worship of God Alone

For what reason, men of Greece, do
you wish to bring the civil
powers, as in a pugilistic encounter, into collision with us? And, if I
am not disposed to comply with the usages of some of them, why am I to
be abhorred as a vile miscreant? [3] Does the sovereign order the
payment of tribute, I am ready to render it. Does my master command me
to act as a bondsman and to serve, I acknowledge the serfdom. Man is to
be honored as a fellowman; [4] God alone is to be feared,--He who is
not visible to human eyes, nor comes within the compass of human art.
Only when I am commanded to deny Him, will I not obey, but will rather
die than show myself false and ungrateful. Our God did not begin to be
in time: [5] He alone is without beginning, and He Himself is the
beginning of all things. God is a Spirit, [6] not pervading matter, but
the Maker of material spirits, [7] and of the forms that are in matter;
He is invisible, impalpable, being Himself the Father of both sensible
and invisible things. Him we know from His creation, and apprehend His
invisible power by His works. [8] I refuse to adore that workman ship
which He has made for our sakes. The sun and moon were made for us:
how, then, can I adore my own servants? How can I speak of stocks and
stones as gods? For the Spirit that pervades matter [7] is inferior to
the more divine spirit; and this, even when assimilated to the soul, is
not to be honored equally with the perfect God. Nor even ought the
ineffable God to be presented with gifts; for He who is in want of
nothing is not to be misrepresented by us as though He were indigent.
But I will set forth our views more distinctly.

Chapter V: The Doctrine of
the Christians as to the
Creation of the World

God was in the beginning; but the
beginning, we have been
taught, is the power of the Logos. For the Lord of the universe, who is
Himself the necessary ground (<greek>npostasis</greek>) of
all being, inasmuch as no creature was yet in existence, was alone; but
inasmuch as He was all power, Himself the necessary ground of things
visible and invisible, with Him were all things; with Him, by
Logos-power (<greek>dia</greek>
<greek>lpgikhs</greek>
<greek>dunameps</greek>), the Logos Himself also, who was
in Him, subsists. [1] And by His simple will the Logos springs forth;
and the Logos, not coming forth in vain, becomes the first-begotten
work of the Father. Him (the Logos) we know to be the beginning of the
world. But He came into being by participation, [2] not by abscission;
for what is cut off is separated from the original substance, but that
which comes by participation, making its choice of function, [3] does
not render him deficient from whom it is taken. For just as from one
torch many fires are lighted, but the light of the first torch is not
lessened by the kindling of many torches, so the Logos, coming forth
from the Logos-power of the Father, has not divested of the Logos-power
Him who begat Him. I myself, for instance, talk, and you hear; yet,
certainly, I who converse do not become destitute of speech
(<greek>logos</greek>) by the transmission of speech, but
by the utterance of my voice I endeavor to reduce to order the
unarranged matter in your minds. And as the Logos [4] begotten in the
beginning, begat in turn our world, having first created for Himself
the necessary matter, so also I, in imitation of the Logos, being
begotten again, [5] and having become possessed of the truth, am trying
to reduce to order the confused matter which is kindred with myself.
For matter is not, like God, without beginning, nor, as having no
beginning, is of equal power with God ; it is begotten, and not
produced by any other being, but brought into existence by the Framer
of all things alone.

Chapter VI: Christians'
Belief in the Resurrection

And on this account we believe
that there will be a
resurrection of bodies after the consummation of all things; not, as
the Stoics affirm, according to the return of certain cycles, the same
things being produced and destroyed for no useful purpose, but a
resurrection once for all, [6] when our periods of existence are
completed, and in consequence solely of the constitution of things
under which men alone live, for the purpose of passing judgment upon
them. Nor is sentence upon us passed by Minos or Rhadamanthus, before
whose decease not a single soul, according to the mythic tales, was
judged; but the Creator, God Himself, becomes the arbiter. And,
although you regard us as mere triflers and babblers, it troubles us
not, since we have faith in this doctrine. For just as, not existing
before I was born, I knew not who I was, and only existed in the
potentiality (<greek>upostasis</greek>) Of fleshly matter,
but being born, after a former state of nothingness, I have obtained
through my birth a certainty of my existence; in the same way, having
been born, and through death existing no longer, and seen no longer, I
shall exist again, just as before I was not, but was afterwards born.
Even though fire destroy all traces of my flesh, the world receives the
vaporized matter ; [7] and though dispersed through rivers and seas, or
torn in pieces by wild beasts, I am laid up in the storehouses of a
wealthy Lord. And, although the poor and the godless know not what is
stored up, yet God the Sovereign, when He pleases, will restore the
substance that is visible to Him alone to its pristine condition.

Chapter VII: Concerning the
Fall of Man

For the heavenly Logos, a spirit
emanating from the Father and
a Logos from the Logos-power, in imitation of the Father who begat Him
made man an image of immortality, so that, as incorruption is with God,
in like manner, man, sharing in a part of God, might have the immortal
principle also. The Logos, [8] too, before the creation of men, was the
Framer of angels. And each of these two orders of creatures was made
free to act as it pleased, not having the nature of good, which again
is with God alone, but is brought to perfection in men through their
freedom of choice, in order that the bad man may be justly punished,
having become depraved through his own fault, but the just man be
deservedly praised for his virtuous deeds, since in the exercise of his
free choice he refrained from transgressing the will of God. Such is
the constitution of things in reference to angels and men. And the
power of the Logos, having in itself a faculty to foresee future
events, not as fated, but as taking place by the choice of free agents,
foretold from time to time the issues of things to come; it also became
a forbidder of wickedness by means of prohibitions, and the encomiast
of those who remained good. And, when men attached themselves to one
who was more subtle than the rest, having regard to his being the
first-born, [1] and declared him to be God, though he was resisting'
the law of God, then the power of the Logos excluded the beginner of
the folly and his adherents from all fellowship with Himself. And so he
who was made in the likeness of God, since the more powerful spirit is
separated from him, becomes mortal; but that first-begotten one through
his transgression and ignorance becomes a demon; and they who imitated
him, that is his illusions, are become a host of demons, and through
their freedom of choice have been given up to their own infatuation.

Chapter VIII: The Demons Sin
Among Mankind

But men form the material
(<greek>upoqesis</greek>)
of their apostasy. For, having shown them a plan of the position of the
stars, like dice-players, they introduced Fate, a flagrant injustice.
For the judge and the judged are made so by Fate; the murderers and the
murdered, the wealthy and the needy, are the offspring of the same
Fate; and every nativity is regarded as a theatrical entertainment by
those beings of whom Homer says, "Among the gods Rose laughter
irrepressible." [2] But must not those who are spectators of single
combats and are partisans on one side or the other, and he who marries
and is a paederast and an adulterer, who laughs and is angry, who flees
and is wounded, be regarded as mortals? For, by whatever actions they
manifest to men their characters, by these they prompt their hearers to
copy their example. And are not the demons themselves, with Zeus at
their head, subjected to Fate, being overpowered by the same passions
as men? And, besides, how are those beings to be worshipped among whom
there exists such a great contrariety of opinions? For Rhea, whom the
inhabitants of the Phrygian mountains call Cybele, enacted emasculation
on account of Attis, of whom she was enamoured; but Aphrodite is
delighted with conjugal embraces. Artemis is a poisoner; Apollo heals
diseases. And after the decapitation of the Gorgon, the beloved of
Poseidon, whence sprang the horse Pegasus and Chrysaor, Athene and
Asclepios divided between them the drops of blood; and, while he saved
men's lives by means of them, she, by the same blood, became a homicide
and the instigator of wars. From regard to her reputation, as it
appears to me, the Athenians attributed to the earth the son born of
her connection with Hephaestos, that Athene might not be thought to be
deprived of her virility by Hephaestos, as Atalanta by Meleaget. This
limping manufacturer of buckles and earrings, as is likely, deceived
the motherless child and orphan with these girlish ornaments. Poseidon
frequents the seas; Ares delights in wars; Apollo is a player on the
cithara; Dionysus is absolute sovereign of the Thebans; Kronos is a
tyrannicide; Zeus has intercourse with his own daughter, who becomes
pregant by him. I may instance, too, Eleusis, and the mystic Dragon,
and Orpheus, who says, "Close the gates against the profane!" Aidoneus
carries off Kore, and his deeds have been made into mysteries; Demeter
bewails her daughter, and some persons are deceived by the Athenians.
In the precincts of the temple of the son of Leto is a spot called
Omphalos; but Omphalos is the burial-place of Dionysus. You now I laud,
O Daphne!--by conquering the incontinence of Apollo, you disproved his
power of vaticination; for, not foreseeing what would occur to you, [3]
he derived no advantage from his art. Let the far-shooting god tell me
how Zephyrus slew Hyacinthus. Zephyrus conquered him; and in accordance
with the saying of the tragic poet, "Abreeze is the most honourable
chariot of the gods," [4]_ conquered by a slight breeze, Apollo lost
his beloved.

Chapter IX: They Give Rise to
Superstitions

Such are the demons; these are
they who laid down the doctrine
of Fate. Their fundamental principle was the placing of animals in the
heavens. For the creeping things on the earth, and those that swim in
the waters, and the quadrupeds on the mountains, with which they lived
when expelled from heaven,--these they dignified with celestial honor,
in order that they might themselves be thought to remain in heaven,
and, by placing the constellations there, might make to appear rational
the irrational course of life on earth. [5] Thus the high-spirited and
he who is crushed with toil, the temperate and the intemperate, the
indigent and the wealthy, are what they are simply from the controllers
of their nativity. For the delineation of the zodiacal circle is the
work of gods. And, when the light of one of them predominates, as they
express it, it deprives all the rest of their honor; and he who now is
conquered, at another time gains the predominance. And the seven
planets are well pleased with them, [1] as if they were amusing
themselves with dice. But we are superior to Fate, and instead of
wandering (<greek>planhtwn</greek>) demons, we have learned
to know one Lord who wanders not; and, as we do not follow the guidance
of Fate, we reject its lawgivers. Tell me, I adjure you (2) did
Triptolemus sow wheat and prove a benefactor to the Athenians after
their sorrow? And why was not Demeter, before she lost her daughter, a
benefactress to men? The Dog of Erigone is shown in the heavens, and
the Scorpion the helper of Artemis, and Chiron the Centaur, and the
divided Argo, and the Bear of Callisto. Yet how, before these performed
the aforesaid deeds, were the heavens unadorned? And to whom will it
not appear ridiculous that the Deltotum [3] should be placed among the
stars, according to some, on account of Sicily, or, as others say, on
account of the first letter in the name of Zeus
(<greek>Dios</greek>)? For why are not Sardinia and Cyprus
honoured in heaven? And why have not the letters of the names of the
brothers of Zeus, who shared the kingdom with him, been fixed there
too? And how is it that Kronos, who was put in chains and ejected from
his kingdom, is constituted a manager [4] of Fate? How, too, can he
give kingdoms who no longer reigns himself? Reject, then, these
absurdities, and do not become transgressors by hating us unjustly.

Chapter X: Ridicule of the
Heathen Divinities

There are legends of the
metamorphosis of men: with you the
gods also are metamorphosed. Rhea becomes a tree; Zeus a dragon, on
account of Persephone; the sisters of Phaethon are changed into
poplars, and Leto into a bird of little value, on whose account what is
now Delos was called Ortygia. A god, forsooth, becomes a swan, or takes
the form of an eagle, and, making Ganymede his cupbearer, glories in a
vile affection. How can I reverence gods who are eager for presents,
and angry if they do not receive them? Let them have their Fate! I am
not willing to adore wandering stars. What is that hair of Berenice?
Where were her stars before her death? And how was the dead Antinous
fixed as a beautiful youth in the moon? Who carried him thither: unless
perchance, as men, perjuring themselves for hire, are credited when
they say in ridicule of the gods that kings have ascended into heaven,
so some one, in like manner, has put this man also among the gods, [5]
and been recompensed with honor and reward? Why have you robbed God?
Why do you dishonor His workmanship? You sacrifice a sheep, and you
adore the same animal. The Bull is in the heavens, and you slaughter
its image. The Kneeler [6] crushes a noxious animal; and the eagle that
devours the man-maker Prometheus is honored. The swan is noble,
forsooth, because it was an adulterer; and the Dioscuri, living on
alternate days, the ravishers of the daughters of Leucippus, are also
noble! Better still is Helen, who forsook the flaxen-haired Menelaus,
and followed the turbaned and gold-adorned Paris. A just man also is
Sophron, [7] who transported this adulteress to the Elysian fields! But
even the daughter of Tyndarus is not gifted with immortality, and
Euripides has wisely represented this woman as put to death by Orestes.

Chapter XI: The Sin of Men
Due Not to Fate, But to
Freewill

How, then, shall I admit this
nativity according to Fate, when
I see such managers of Fate? I do not wish to be a king; I am not
anxious to be rich; I decline military command; I detest fornication; I
am not impelled by an insatiable love of gain to go to sea; I do not
contend for chaplets; I am free from a mad thirst for fame; I despise
death; I am superior to every kind of disease; grief does not consume
my soul. Am I a slave, I endure servitude. Am I free, I do not make a
vaunt of my good birth. I see that the same sun is for all, and one
death for all, whether they live in pleasure or destitution. The rich
man sows, and the poor man partakes of the same sowing. The wealthiest
die, and beggars have the same limits to their life. The rich lack many
things, and are glorious only through the estimation they are held in;
[8] but the poor man and he who has very moderate desires, seeking as
he does only the things suited to his lot, more easily obtains his
purpose. How is it that you are fated to be sleepless through avarice?
Why are you fated to grasp at things often, and often to die? Die to
the world, repudiating the madness that is in it. Live to God, and by
apprehending Him lay aside your old nature. [9] We were not created to
die, but we die by our own fault. [1] Our freewill has destroyed us; we
who were free have become slaves; we have been sold through sin.
Nothing evil has been created by God; we Ourselves have manifested
wickedness; but we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject
it.

Chapter XII: The Two Kinds of
Spirits

We recognize two varieties of
spirit, one of which is called
the soul [2] (<greek>yukh</greek>), but the other is
greater than the soul, an image and likeness of God: both existed in
the first men, that in one sense they might be material
(<greek>ulikoi</greek>), and in another superior to matter.
The case stands thus: we can see that the whole structure of the world,
and the whole creation, has been produced from matter, and the matter
itself brought into existence [3] by God; so that on the one hand it
may be regarded as rude and unformed before it was separated into
parts, and on the other as arranged in beauty and order after the
separation was made. Therefore in that separation the heavens were made
of matter, and the stars that are in them; and the earth and all that
is upon it has a similar constitution: so that there is a common origin
of all things. But, while such is the case, there yet are certain
differences in the things made of matter, so that one is more
beautiful, and another is beautiful but surpassed by something better.
For as the constitution of the body is under one management, and is
engaged in doing that which is the cause of its having been made, [4]
yet though this is the case, there are certain differences of dignity
in it, and the eye is one thing, and another the ear, and another the
arrangement of the hair and the distribution of the intestines, and the
compacting together of the marrow and the bones and the tendons; and
though one part differs from another, there is yet all the harmony of a
concert of music in their arrangement; in like manner the world,
according to the power of its Maker containing some things of superior
splendor, but some unlike these, received by the will of the Creator a
material spirit. And these things severally it is possible for him to
perceive who does not conceitedly reject those most divine explanations
which in the course of time have been consigned to writing, and make
those who study them great lovers of God. Therefore the demons, [5] as
you call them, having received their structure from matter and obtained
the spirit which inheres in it, became intemperate and greedy; some
few, indeed, turning to what was purer, but others choosing what was
inferior in matter, and conforming their manner of life to it. These
beings, produced from matter, but very remote from right conduct, you,
O Greeks, worship. For, being turned by their own folly to
vain-gloriousness, and shaking off the reins [of authority], they have
been forward to become robbers of Deity; and the Lord of all has
suffered them to besport themselves, till the world, coming to an end,
be dissolved, and the Judge appear, and all those men who, while
assailed by the demons, strive after the knowledge of the perfect God
obtain as the result of their conflicts a more perfect testimony in the
day of judgment. There is, then, a spirit in the stars, a spirit in
angels, a spirit in plants and the waters, a spirit in men, a spirit in
animals; but, though one and the same, it has differences in itself.
[6] And while we say these things not from mere hearsay, nor from
probable conjectures and sophistical reasoning, but using words of a
certain diviner speech, do you who are willing hasten to learn. And you
who do not reject with contempt the Scythian Anacharsis, do not disdain
to be taught by those who follow a barbaric code of laws. Give at least
as favorable a reception to our tenets as you would to the
prognostications of the Babylonians. Hearken to us when we speak, if
only as you would to an oracular oak. And yet the things just referred
to are the trickeries of frenzied demons, while the doctrines we
inculcate are far beyond the apprehension of the world.

Chapter XIII: Theory of the
Soul's Immortality

The soul is not in itself
immortal, O Greeks, but mortal. [7]
Yet it is possible for it not to die. If, indeed, it knows not the
truth, it dies, and is dissolved with the body, but rises again at last
at the end of the world with the body, receiving death by punishment in
immortality. But, again, if it acquires the knowledge of God, it dies
not, although for a time it be dissolved. In itself it is darkness, and
there is nothing luminous in it. And this is the meaning of the saying,
"The darkness comprehendeth not the light." [8] For the soul does not
preserve the spirit, but is preserved by it, and the light comprehends
the darkness. The Logos, in truth, is the light of God, but the
ignorant soul is darkness. On this account, if it continues solitary,
it tends downward towards matter, and dies with the flesh; but, if it
enters into union with the Divine Spirit, 71

it is no longer helpless, but
ascends to the regions whither
the Spirit guides it: for the dwelling-place of the spirit is above,
but the origin of the soul is from beneath. Now, in the beginning the
spirit was a constant companion of the soul, but the spirit forsook it
because it was not willing to follow. Yet, retaining as it were a spark
of its power, though unable by reason of the separation to discern the
perfect, while seeking for God it fashioned to itself in its wandering
many gods, following the sophistries of the demons. But the Spirit of
God is not with all, but, taking up its abode with those who live
justly, and intimately combining with the soul, by prophecies it
announced hidden things to other souls. And the souls that are obedient
to wisdom have attracted to themselves the cognate spirit; [1] but the
disobedient, rejecting the minister of the suffering God, [2] have
shown themselves to be fighters against God, rather than His
worshippers.

Chapter XIV: The Demons Shall
Be Punished More Severely
Than Men

And such are you also, O Greeks --
profuse in words, but with
minds strangely warped; and you acknowledge the dominion of many rather
than the rule of one, accustoming yourselves to follow demons as if
they were mighty. For, as the inhuman robber is wont to overpower those
like himself by daring; so the demons, going to great lengths in
wickedness, have utterly deceived the souls among you which are left to
themselves by ignorance and false appearances. These! beings do not
indeed die easily, for they do not partake of flesh; but while living
they praxes the ways of death, and die themselves as often as they
teach their followers to sin. Therefore, what is now their chief
distinction, that they do not die like men, they will retain when about
to suffer punishment: they will not partake of everlasting life, so as
to receive this instead of death in a blessed immortality. And as we,
to whom it now easily happens to die, afterwards receive the immortal
with enjoyment, or the painful with immortality, so the demons, who
abuse the present life to purposes of wrongdoing, dying continually
even while they live, will have hereafter the same immortality, like
that which they had during the time they lived, but in its nature like
that of men, who voluntarily performed what the demons prescribed to
them during their lifetime. And do not fewer kinds of sin break out
among men owing to the brevity of their lives, [3] while on the part of
these demons transgression is more abundant owing to their boundless
existence?

Chapter XV: Necessity of a
Union With the Holy Spirit

But further, it becomes us now to
seek for what we once had,
but have lost, to unite the soul with the Holy Spirit, and to strive
after union with God. The human soul consists of many parts, and is not
simple; it is composite, so as to manifest itself through the body; for
neither could it ever appear by itself without the body, nor does the
flesh rise again without the soul. Man is not, as the croaking
philosophers say, merely a rational animal, capable of understanding
and knowledge; for, according to them, even irrational creatures appear
possessed of understanding and knowledge. But man alone is the image
and likeness of God; and I mean by man, not one who performs actions
similar to those of animals, but one who has advanced far beyond mere
humanity--to God Himself. This question we have discussed more minutely
in the treatise concerning animals. But the principal point to be
spoken of now is, what is intended by the image and likeness of God.
That which cannot be compared is no other than abstract being; but that
which is compared is no other than that which is like. The perfect God
is without flesh; but man is flesh. The bond of the flesh is the soul;
[4] that which encloses the soul is the flesh. Such is the nature of
man's constitution; and, if it be like a temple, God is pleased to
dwell in it by the spirit, His representative; but, if it be not such a
habitation, man excels the wild beasts in articulate language only,--in
other respects his manner of life is like theirs, as one who is not a
likeness of God. But none of the demons possess flesh; their structure
is spiritual, like that of fire or air. And only by those whom the
Spirit of God dwells in and fortifies are the bodies of the demons
easily seen, not at all by others,--I mean those who possess only soul;
[5] for the inferior has not the ability to apprehend the superior. On
this account the nature of the demons has no place for repentance; for
they are the reflection of matter and of wickedness. But matter desired
to exercise lordship over the soul; and according to their freewill
these gave laws of death to men; but men, after the loss of
immortality, have conquered death by submitting to death in faith; [6]
and by repentance a call has been given to them, according to the word
which says, "Since they were made a little lower than the angels." [7]
And, for every one who has been conquered, it is possible again to
conquer, if he rejects the condition which brings death. And what that
is, may be easily seen by men who long for immortality.

Chapter XVI: Vain Display of
Power be the Demons

But the demons [1] who rule over
men are not the souls of men;
for how should these be capable of action after death? unless man, who
while living was void of understanding and power, should be believed
when dead to be endowed with more of active power. But neither could
this be the case, as we have shown elsewhere. [2] And it is difficult
to conceive that the immortal soul, which is impeded by the members of
the body, should become more intelligent when it has migrated from it.
For the demons, inspired with frenzy against men by reason of their own
wickedness, pervert their minds, which already incline downwards, by
various deceptive scenic representations, that they may be disabled
from rising to the path that leads to heaven. But from us the things
which are in the world are not hidden, and the divine is easily
apprehended by us if the power that makes souls immortal visits us. The
demons are seen also by the men possessed of soul, when, as sometimes,
they exhibit themselves to men, either that they may be thought to be
something, or as evil-disposed friends may do harm to them as to
enemies, or afford occasions of doing them honor to those who resemble
them. For, if it were possible, they would without doubt pull down
heaven itself with the rest of creation. But now this they can by no
means effect, for they have not the power; but they make war by means
of the lower matter against the matter that is like themselves. Should
any one wish to conquer them, let him repudiate matter. Being armed
with the breastplate [3] of the celestial Spirit, he will be able to
preserve all that is encompassed by it. There are, indeed, diseases and
disturbances of the matter that is in us; but, when such things happen,
the demons ascribe the causes of them to themselves, and approach a man
whenever disease lays hold of him. Sometimes they themselves disturb
the habit of the body by a tempest of folly; but, being smitten by the
word of God, they depart in terror, and the sick man is healed.

Chapter XVII: They Falsely
Promise Health to their
Votaries

Concerning the sympathies and
antipathies of Democritus what
can we say but this, that, according to the common saying, the man of
Abdera is Abderiloquent? But, as he who gave the name to the city, a
friend of Hercules as it is said, was devoured by the horses of
Diomedes, so he who boasted of the Magian Ostanes [4] will be delivered
up in the day of consummation s as fuel for the eternal fire. And you,
if you do not cease from your laughter, will gain the same punishment
as the jugglers. Wherefore, O Greeks, hearken to me, addressing you as
from an eminence, nor in mockery transfer your own want of reason to
the herald of the truth. A diseased affection
(<greek>paqos</greek>) is not destroyed by a
counter-affection (<greek>antipaqeia</greek>), nor is a
maniac cured by hanging little amulets of leather upon him. There are
visitations of demons; and he who is sick, and he who says he is in
love, and he who hates, and he who wishes to be revenged, accept them
as helpers. And this is the method of their operation: just as the
forms of alphabetic letters and the lines composed of them cannot of
themselves indicate what is meant, but men have invented for themselves
signs of their thoughts, knowing by their peculiar combination what the
order of the letters was intended to express; so, in like manner, the
various kinds of roots and the mutual relation of the sinews and bones
can effect nothing of themselves, but are the elemental matter with
which the depravity of the demons works, who have determined for what
purpose each of them is available. And, when they see that men consent
to be served by means of such things, they take them and make them
their slaves. But how can it be honorable to minister to adulteries?
How can it be noble to stimulate men in hating one another? Or how is
it becoming to ascribe to matter the relief of the insane, and not to
God? For by their art they turn men aside from the pious acknowledgment
of God, leading them to place confidence in herbs and roots. [6] But
God, if He had prepared these things to effect just what men wish,
would be a Producer of evil things; whereas He Himself produced
everything which has good qualities, but the profligacy of the demons
has made use of the productions of nature for evil purposes, and the
appearance of evil which these wear is from them, and not from the
perfect God. For how comes it to pass that when alive I was in no wise
evil, but that now I am dead and can do nothing, my remains, which are
incapable of motion or even sense, should effect something cognizable
by the senses? And how shall he who has died by the most miserable
death be able to assist in avenging any one? If this were possible,
much more might he defend himself from his own enemy; being able to
assist others, much more might he constitute himself his own avenger.

Chapter XVIII: They Deceive,
Instead of Healing

But medicine and everything
included in it is an invention of
the same kind. If any one is healed by matter, through trusting to it,
much more will he be healed by having recourse to the power of God. As
noxious preparations arc material compounds, so are curatives of the
same nature. If, however, we reject the baser matter, some persons
often endeavor to heal by a union of one of these bad things with some
other, and will make use of the bad to attain the good. But, just as he
who dines with a robber, though he may not be a robber himself,
partakes of the punishment on account of his intimacy with him, so he
who is not bad but associates with the bad, having dealings with them
for some supposed good, will be punished by God the Judge for
partnership in the same object. Why is he who trusts in the system of
matter [1] not willing to trust in God? For what reason do you not
approach the more powerful Lord, but rather seek to cure yourself, like
the dog with grass, or the stag with a viper, or the hog with
river-crabs, or the lion with apes? Why you deify the objects of
nature? And why, when you cure your neighbor, are you called a
benefactor? Yield to the power of the Logos! The demons do not cure,
but by their art make men their captives. And the most admirable Justin
[2] has rightly denounced them as robbers. For, as it is the practice
of some to capture persons and then to restore them to their friends
for a ransom, so those who are esteemed gods, invading the bodies of
certain persons, and producing a sense of their presence by dreams,
command them to come forth into public, and in the sight of all, when
they have taken their fill of the things of this world, fly away from
the sick, and, destroying the disease which they had produced, restore
men to their former state.

Chapter XIX: Depravity Lies
at the Bottom of Demon Worship

But do you, who have not the
perception of these things, be
instructed by us who know them: though you do profess to despise death,
and to be sufficient of yourselves for everything. But this is a
discipline in which your philosophers are so greatly deficient, that
some of them receive from the king of the Romans 600 aurei yearly, for
no useful service they perform, but that they may not even wear a long
beard without being paid for it! Crescens, who made his nest in the
great city, surpassed all men in unnatural love
(<greek>paiderastia</greek>), and was strongly addicted to
the love of money. Yet this man, who professed to despise death, was so
afraid of death, that he endeavored to inflict on Justin, and indeed on
me, the punishment of death, as being an evil, because by proclaiming
the truth he convicted the philosophers of being gluttons and cheats.
But whom of the philosophers, save you only, was he accustomed to
inveigh against? If you say, in agreement with our tenets, that death
is not to be dreaded, do not court death from an insane love of fame
among men, like Anaxagoras, but become despisers of death by reason of
the knowledge of God. The construction of the world is excellent, but
the life men live in it is bad; and we may see those greeted with
applause as in a solemn assembly who know not God. For what is
divination? and why are ye deceived by it? It is a minister to thee of
worldly lusts. You wish make war, and you take Apollo as a counselor of
slaughter. You want to carry off a maiden by force, and you select a
divinity to be your accomplice. You are ill by your own fault; and, as
Agamemnon [3] wished for ten councilors, so you wish to have gods with
you. Some woman by drinking water gets into a frenzy, and loses her
senses by the fumes of frankincense, and you say that she has the gift
of prophecy. Apollo was a prognosticator and a teacher of soothsayers:
in the matter of Daphne he deceived himself. An oak, forsooth, is
oracular, and birds utter presages! And so you are inferior to animals
and plants! It would surely be a fine thing for you to become a
divining rod, or to assume the wings of a bird! He who makes you fond
of money also foretells your getting rich; he who excites to seditions
and wars also predicts victory in war. If you are superior to the
passions, you will despise all worldly things. Do not abhor us who have
made this attainment, but, repudiating the demons, [4] follow the one
God. "All things [5] were made by Him, and without Him not one thing
was made." If there is poison in natural productions, this has
supervened through our sinfulness. I am able to show the perfect truth
of these things; only do you hearken, and he who believes will
understand.

Chapter XX: Thanks Are Ever
Due to God

Even if you be healed by drugs (I
grant you that point by
courtesy), yet it behooves you to give testimony of the cure to God.
For the world still draws us down, and through weakness I incline
towards matter. For the wings of the soul were the perfect spirit, but,
having cast this off through sin, it flutters like a nestling and falls
to the ground. Having left the heavenly companionship, it hankers after
communion with inferior things. The demons were driven forth to another
abode; the first created human beings were expelled from their place:
the one, indeed, were cast down from heaven; but the other were driven
from earth, yet not out of this earth, but from a more excellent order
of things than exists here now. And now it behooves us, yearning after
that pristine state, to put aside everything that proves a hindrance.
The heavens are not infinite, O man, but finite and bounded; and beyond
them are the superior worlds which have not a change of seasons, by
which various, diseases are produced, but, partaking of every happy
temperature, have perpetual day, and light unapproachable by men below.
[1] Those who have composed elaborate descriptions of the earth have
given an account of its various regions so far as this was possible to
man; but, being unable to speak of that which is beyond, because Of the
impossibility of personal observation, they have assigned as the cause
the existence of tides; and that one sea is filled with weed, and
another with mud; and that some localities are burnt up with heat, and
others cold and frozen. We, however, have learned things which were
unknown to us, through the teaching of the prophets, who, being fully
persuaded that the heavenly spirit [2] along with the soul will acquire
a clothing of mortality, foretold things which other minds were
unacquainted with. But it is possible for every one who is naked to
obtain this apparel, and to return to its ancient kindred.

We do not act as fools, O Greeks,
nor utter idle tales, when we
announce that God was born in the form of a man. I call on you who
reproach us to compare your mythical accounts with our narrations.
Athene, as they say, took the form of Deiphobus for the sake of Hector,
[3] and the unshorn Phoebus for the sake of Admetus fed the
trailing-footed oxen, and the spouse us came as an old woman to Semele.
But, while you treat seriously such things, how can you deride us? Your
Asclepios died, and he who ravished fifty virgins in one night at
Thespiae lost his life by delivering himself to the devouring flame.
Prometheus, fastened to Caucasus, suffered punishment for his good
deeds to men. According to you, Zeus is envious, and hides the dream
[4] from men, wishing their destruction. Wherefore, looking at your own
memorials, vouchsafe us your approval, though it were only as dealing
in legends similar to your own. We, however, do not deal in folly, but
your legends are only idle tales. If you speak of the origin of the
gods, you also declare them to be mortal. For what reason is Hera now
never pregnant? Has she grown old? or is there no one to give you
information? Believe me now, O Greeks, and do not resolve your myths
and gods into allegory. If you attempt to do this, the divine nature as
held by you is overthrown by your own selves; for, if the demons with
you are such as they are said to be, they are worthless as to
character; or, if regarded as symbols of the powers of nature, they are
not what they are called. But I cannot be persuaded to pay religious
homage to the natural elements, nor can I undertake to persuade my
neighbor. And Metrodorus of Lampsacus, in his treatise concerning
Homer, has argued very foolishly, turning everything into allegory. For
he says that neither Hera, nor Athene, nor Zeus are what those persons
suppose who consecrate to them sacred enclosures and groves, but parts
of nature and certain arrangements of the elements. Hector also, and
Achilles, and Agamemnon, and all the Greeks in general, and the
Barbarians with Helen and Paris, being of the same nature, you will of
course say are introduced merely for the sake of the machinery [5] of
the poem, not one of these personages having really existed. But these
things we have put forth only for argument's sake; for it is not
allowable even to compare our notion of God with those who are
wallowing in matter and mud.

Chapter XXII: Ridicule of the
Solemnities of the Greeks

And of what sort are your
teachings? Who must not treat with
contempt your solemn festivals, which, being held in honor of wicked
demons, cover men with infamy? I have often seen a man [1]--and have
been amazed to see, and the amazement has ended in contempt, to think
how he is one thing internally, but outwardly counterfeits what he is
not--giving himself excessive airs of daintiness and indulging in all
sorts of effeminacy; sometimes darting his eyes about; sometimes
throwing his hands hither and thither, and raving with his face smeared
with mud; sometimes personating Aphrodite, sometimes Apollo; a solitary
accuser of all the gods, an epitome of superstition, a vituperator of
heroic deeds, an actor of murders, a chronicler of adultery, a
storehouse of madness, a teacher of cynaedi, an instigator of capital
sentences;--and yet such a man is praised by all. But I have rejected
all his falsehoods, his impiety, his practices,--in short, the man
altogether. But you are led captive by such men, while you revile those
who do not take a part in your pursuits. I have no mind to stand agape
at a number of singers, nor do I desire to be affected in sympathy with
a man when he is winking and gesticulating in an unnatural manner. What
wonderful or extraordinary thing is performed among you? They utter
ribaldry in affected tones, and go through indecent movements; your
daughters and your sons behold them giving lessons in adultery on the
stage. Admirable places, forsooth, are your lecture-rooms, where every
base action perpetrated by night is proclaimed aloud, and the hearers
are regaled with the utterance of infamous discourses! Admirable, too,
are your mendacious poets, who by their fictions beguile their hearers
from the truth!

Chapter XXIII: Of the
Pugilists and Gladiators

I have seen men weighed down by
bodily exercise, and carrying
about the burden of their flesh, before whom rewards and chaplets are
set, while the adjudicators cheer them on, not to deeds of virtue, but
to rivalry in violence and discord; and he who excels in giving blows
is crowned. These are the lesser evils; as for the greater, who would
not shrink from telling them? Some, giving themselves up to idleness
for the sake of profligacy, sell themselves to be killed; and the
indigent barters himself away, while the rich man buys others to kill
him. And for these the witnesses take their seats, and the boxers meet
in single combat, for no reason whatever, nor does any one come down
into the arena to succour. Do such exhibitions as these redound to your
credit? He who is chief among you collects a legion of blood-stained
murderers, engaging to maintain them; and these ruffians are sent forth
by him, and you assemble at the spectacle to be judges, partly of the
wickedness of the adjudicator, and partly of that of the men who engage
in the combat. And he who misses the murderous exhibition is grieved,
because he was not doomed to be a spectator of wicked and impious and
abominable deeds. You slaughter animals for the purpose of eating their
flesh, and you purchase men to supply a cannibal banquet for the soul,
nourishing it by the most impious blood shedding. The robber commits
murder for the sake of plunder, but the rich man purchases gladiators
for the sake of their being killed. [2]

Chapter XXIV: Of the Other
Public Amusements

What advantage should I gain from
him who is brought on the
stage by Euripides raving mad, and acting the matricide of Alcmaeon;
who does not even retain his natural behaviour, but with his mouth wide
open goes about sword in hand, and, screaming aloud, is burned to
death, habited in a robe unfit for man? Away, too, with the mythical
tales of Acusilaus, and Menander, a versifier of the same class! And
why should I admire the mythic piper? Why should I busy myself about
the Theban Antigenides, [3] like Aristoxenus? We leave you to these
worthless things; and do you either believe our doctrines, or, like us,
give up yours.

Chapter XXV: Boastings and
Quarrels of the Philosophers

What great and wonderful things
have your philosophers
effected? They leave uncovered one of their shoulders; they let their
hair grow long; they cultivate their beards; their nails are like the
claws of wild beasts. Though they say that they want nothing, yet, like
Proteus, [4] they need a currier for their wallet, and a weaver for
their mantle, and a wood-cutter for their staff, and the rich, [5] and
a cook also for their gluttony. O man competing with the dog, [6] you
know not God, and so have turned to the imitation of an irrational
animal. You cry out in public with an assumption of authority, and take
upon you to avenge your own self; and if you receive nothing, you
indulge in abuse, and philosophy is with you the art of getting money.
You follow the doctrines of Plato, and a disciple of Epicurus lifts up
his voice to oppose you. Again, you wish to be a disciple of Aristotle,
and a follower of Democritus rails at you. Pythagoras says that he was
Euphorbus, and he is the heir of the doctrine of Pherecydes; but
Aristotle impugns the immortality of the soul. You who receive from
your predecessors doctrines which clash with one another, you the
inharmonious, are fighting against the harmonious. One of you asserts
that God is body, but I assert that He is without body; that the world
is indestructible, but I say that it is to be destroyed; that a
conflagration will take place at various times, but I say that it will
come to pass once for all; that Minos and Rhadamanthus are judges, but
I say that God Himself is Judge; that the soul alone is endowed with
immortality, but I say that the flesh also is endowed with it. [1] What
injury do we inflict upon you, O Greeks? Why do you hate those who
follow the word of God, as if they were the vilest of mankind? It is
not we who eat human flesh [2]--they among you who assert such a thing
have been suborned as false witnesses; it is among you that Pelops is
made a supper for the gods, although beloved by Poseidon, and Kronos
devours his children, and Zeus swallows Metis.

Chapter XXVI: Ridicule of the
Studies of the Greeks

Cease to make a parade of sayings
which you have derived from
others, and to deck yourselves like the daw in borrowed plumes. If each
state were to take away its contribution to your speech, your fallacies
would lose their power. While inquiring what God is, you are ignorant
of what is in yourselves; and, while staring all agape at the sky, you
stumble into pitfalls. The reading of your books is like walking
through a labyrinth, and their readers resemble the cask of the
Danaids. Why do you divide time, saying that one part is past, and
another present, and another future? For how can the future be passing
when the present exists? As those who are sailing imagine in their
ignorance, as the ship is borne along, that the hills are in motion, so
you do not know that it is you who are passing along, but that time
(<greek>o</greek> <greek>aiwn</greek>) remains
present as long as the Creator wills it to exist. Why am I called to
account for uttering my opinions, and why are you in such haste to put
them all down? Were not you born in the same manner as ourselves, and
placed under the same government of the world? Why say that wisdom is
with you alone, who have not another sun, nor other risings of the
stars, nor a more distinguished origin, nor a death preferable to that
of other men? The grammarians have been the beginning of this idle
talk; and you who parcel out wisdom are cut off from the wisdom that is
according to truth, and assign the names of the several parts to
particular men; and you know not God, but in your fierce contentions
destroy one another. And on this account you are all nothing worth.
While you arrogate to yourselves the sole right of discussion, you
discourse like the blind man with the deaf. Why do you handle the
builder's tools without knowing how to build? Why do you busy
yourselves with words, while you keep aloof from deeds, puffed up with
praise, but cast down by misfortunes? Your modes of acting are contrary
to reason, for you make a pompons appearance in public, but hide your
teaching in corners. Finding you to be such men as these, we have
abandoned you, and no longer concern ourselves with your tenets, but
follow the word of God. Why, O man, do you set the letters of the
alphabet at war with one another? Why do you, as in a boxing match,
make their sounds clash together with your mincing Attic way of
speaking, whereas you ought to speak more according to nature? For if
you adopt the Attic dialect though not an Athenian, pray why do you not
speak like the Dorians? How is it that one appears to you more rugged,
the other more pleasant for intercourse?

Chapter XXVII: The Christians
Are Hated Unjustly

And if you adhere to their
teaching, why do you fight against
me for choosing such views of doctrine as I approve? Is it not
unreasonable that, while the robber is not to be punished for the name
he bears, [3] but only when the truth about him has been clearly
ascertained, yet we are to be assailed with abuse on a judgment formed
without examination? Diagoras was an Athenian, but you punished him for
divulging the Athenian mysteries; yet you who read his Phrygian
discourses hate us. You possess the commentaries of Leo, and are
displeased with our refutations of them; and having in your hands the
opinions of Apion concerning the Egyptian gods, you denounce us as most
impious. The tomb of Olympian Zeus is shown among you, [4] though some
one says that the Cretans are liars. [5] Your assembly of many gods is
nothing. Though their despiser Epicurus acts as a torch-bearer, [6] I
do not any the more conceal from the rulers that view of God which I
hold in relation to His government of the universe. Why do you advise
me to be false to my principles? Why do you who say that you despise
death exhort us to use art in order to escape it? I have not the heart
of a deer; but your zeal for dialectics resembles the loquacity of
Thersites. How can I believe one who tells me that the sun is a red-hot
mass and the moon an earth? Such assertions are mere logomachies, and
not a sober exposition of truth. How can it be otherwise than foolish
to credit the books of Herodotus relating to the history of Hercules,
which tell of an upper earth from which the lion came down that was
killed by Hercules? And what avails the Attic style, the sorites of
philosophers, the plausibilities of syllogisms, the measurements of the
earth, the positions of the stars, and the course of the sun? To be
occupied in such inquiries is the work of one who imposes opinions on
himself as if they were laws.

Chapter XXVIII: Condemnation
of the Greek Legislation

On this account I reject your
legislation also; for there ought
to be one common polity for all; but now there are as many different
codes as there are states, so that things held disgraceful in some are
honorable in others. The Greeks consider intercourse with a mother as
unlawful, but this practice is esteemed most becoming by the Persian
Magi; paederasty is condemned by the Barbarians, but by the Romans, who
endeavor to collect herds of boys like grazing horses, it is honored
with certain privileges.

Chapter XXIX: Account of
Tatian's Conversion

Wherefore, having seen these
things, and moreover also having
been admitted to the mysteries, and having everywhere examined the
religious rites performed by the effeminate and the pathic, and having
found among the Romans their Latiarian Jupiter delighting in human gore
and the blood of slaughtered men, and Artemis not far from the great
city [1] sanctioning acts of the same kind, and one demon here and
another there instigating to the perpetration of evil,--retiring by
myself, I sought how I might be able to discover the truth. And, while
I was giving my most earnest attention to the matter, I happened to
meet with certain barbaric writings, too old to be compared with the
opinions of the Greeks, and too divine to be compared with their
errors; and I was led to put faith in these by the unpretending east of
the language, the inartificial character of the writers, the
foreknowledge displayed of future events, the excellent quality of the
precepts, and the declaration of the government of the universe as
centered in one Being. [2] And, my soul being taught of God, I discern
that the former class of writings lead to condemnation, but that these
put an end to the slavery that is in the world, and rescue us from a
multiplicity of rulers and ten thousand tyrants, while they give us,
not indeed what we had not before received, but what we had received
but were prevented by error from retaining.

Chapter XXX: How He Resolved
to Resist the Devil

Therefore, being initiated and
instructed in these things, I
wish to put away my former errors as the follies of childhood. For we
know that the nature of wickedness is like that of the smallest seeds;
since it has waxed strong from a small beginning, but will again be
destroyed if we obey the words of God and do not scatter ourselves. For
He has become master of all we have by means of a certain "hidden
treasure," [3] which while we are digging for we are indeed covered
with dust, but we secure it as our fixed possession. He who receives
the whole of this treasure has obtained command of the most precious
wealth. Let these things, then, be said to our friends. But to you
Greeks what can I say, except to request you not to rail at those who
are better than yourselves, nor if they are called Barbarians to make
that an occasion of banter? For, if you are willing, you will be able
to find out the cause of mews not being able to understand one
another's language; for to those who wish to examine our principles I
will give a simple and copious account of them.

Chapter XXXI: The Philosophy
of the Christians More
Ancient Than That of the Greeks

But now it seems proper for me to
demonstrate that our
philosophy is older than the systems of the Greeks. Moses and Homer
shall be our limits, each of them being of great antiquity; the one
being the oldest of poets and historians, and the other the founder of
all barbarian wisdom. Let us, then, institute a comparison between
them; and we shall find that our doctrines are older, not only than
those of the Greeks, but than the invention of letters. [3] And I will
not bring forward witnesses from among ourselves, but rather have
recourse to Greeks. To do the former would be foolish, because it would
not be allowed by you; but the other will surprise you, when, by
contending against you with your own weapons, I adduce arguments of
which you had no suspicion. Now the poetry of Homer, his parentage, and
the time in which he flourished have been investigated by the most
ancient writers,--by Theagenes of Rhegium, who lived in the time of
Cambyses, Stesimbrotus of Thasos and Antimachus of Colophon, Herodotus
of Halicarnassus, and Dionysius the Olynthian; after them, by Ephorus
of Cumae, and Philochorus the Athenian, Megaclides and Chamaeleon the
Peripatetics; afterwards by the grammarians, Zenodotus, Aristophanes,
Callimachus, Crates, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, and Apollodorus. Of
these, Crates says that he flourished before the return of the
Heraclidae, and within 80 years after the Trojan war; Eratosthenes says
that it was after the 100th year from the taking of Ilium; Aristarchus,
that it was about the time of the Ionian migration, which was 140 years
after that event; but, according to Philochorus, after the Ionian
migration, in the archonship of Archippus at Athens, 180 years after
the Trojan war; Apollodorus says it was 100 years after the Ionian
migration, which would be 240 years after the Trojan war. Some say that
he lived 90 years before the Olympiads, which would be 317 years after
the taking of Troy. Others carry it down to a later date, and say that
Homer was a contemporary of Archilochus ; but Archilochus flourished
about the 23d Olympiad, in the time of Gyges the Lydian, 500 years
after Troy. Thus, concerning the age of the aforesaid poet, I mean
Homer, and the discrepancies of those who have spoken of him, we have
said enough in a summary manner for those who are able to investigate
with accuracy. For it is possible to show that the opinions held about
the facts themselves also are false. For, where the assigned dates do
not agree together, it is impossible that the history should be true.
For what is the cause of error in writing, but the narrating of things
that are not true?

Chapter XXXII: The Doctrine
of the Christians, is Opposed
to Dissensions, and Fitted For All

But with us there is no desire of
vainglory, nor do we indulge
in a variety of opinions. For having renounced the popular and earthly,
and obeying the commands of God, and following the law of the Father of
immortality, we reject everything which rests upon human opinion. Not
only do the rich among us pursue our philosophy, but the poor enjoy
instruction gratuitously; [1] for the things which come from God
surpass the requital of worldly gifts. Thus we admit all who desire to
hear, even old women and striplings; and, in short, persons of every
age are treated by us with respect, but every kind of licentiousness is
kept at a distance. And in speaking we do not utter falsehood. It would
be an excellent thing if your continuance in unbelief should receive a
check; but, however that may be, let our cause remain confirmed by the
judgment pronounced by God. Laugh, if you please; but you will have to
weep hereafter. Is it not absurd that Nestor, [2] who was slow at
cutting his horses' reins owing to his weak and sluggish old age, is,
according to you, to be admired for attempting to rival the young men
in fighting, while you deride those among us who struggle against old
age and occupy themselves with the things pertaining to God? Who would
not laugh when you tell us that the Amazons, and Semiramis, and certain
other warlike women existed, while you cast reproaches on our maidens?
Achilles was a youth, yet is believed to have been very magnanimous;
and Neoptolemus was younger, but strong; Philoctetes was weak, but the
divinity had need of him against Troy. What sort of man was Thersites?
yet he held a command in the army, and, if he had not through
doltishness had such an unbridled tongue, he would not have been
reproached for being peak-headed and bald. As for those who wish to
learn our philosophy, we do not test them by their looks, nor do we
judge of those who come to us by their outward appearance; for we argue
that there may be strength of mind in all, though they may be weak in
body. But your proceedings are full of envy and abundant stupidity.

Chapter XXXIII: Vindication
of Christian Women

Therefore I have been desirous to
prove from the things which
are esteemed honorable among you, that our institutions are marked by
sober mindedness, but that yours are in close affinity with madness.
[3] You who say that we talk nonsense among women and boys, among
maidens and old women, and scoff at us for not being with you, hear
what silliness prevails among the Greeks. For their works of art are
devoted to worthless objects, while they are held in higher estimation
by you than even your gods; and you behave yourselves unbecomingly in
what relates to woman. For Lysippus cast a statue of Praxilla, whose
poems contain nothing useful, and Menestratus one of Learchis, and
Selanion one of Sappho the courtezan, and Naucydes one of Erinna the
Lesbian, and Boiscus one of Myrtis, and Cephisodotus one of Myro of
Byzantium, and Gomphus one of Praxigoris, and Amphistratus one of
Clito. And what shall I say about Anyta, Telesilla, and Mystis? Of the
first Euthycrates and Cephisodotus made a statue, and of the second
Niceratus, and of the third Aristodotus; Euthycrates made one of
Mnesiarchis the Ephesian, Selanion one of Corinna, and Euthycrates one
of Thalarchis the Argive. My object in referring to these women is,
that you may not regard as something strange what you find among us,
and that, comparing the statues which are before your eyes, you may not
treat the women with scorn who among us pursue philosophy. This Sappho
is a lewd, love-sick female, and sings her own wantonness; [1] but all
our women are chaste, and the maidens at their distaffs sing of divine
things [2] more nobly than that damsel of yours. Wherefore be ashamed,
you who are professed disciples of women yet scoff at those of the sex
who hold our doctrine, as well as at the solemn assemblies they
frequent. [2] What a noble infant did Glaucippe present to you, who
brought forth a prodigy, as is shown by her statue cast by Niceratus,
the son of Euctemon the Athenian! But, if Glaucippe brought forth an
elephant, was that a reason why she should enjoy public honours?
Praxiteles and Herodotus made for you Phryne the courtezan, and
Euthycrates cast a brazen statue of Panteuchis, who was pregnant by a
whoremonger; and Dinomenes, because Besantis queen of the Paeonians
gave birth to a black infant, took pains to preserve her memory by his
art. I condemn Pythagoras too, who made a figure of Europa on the bull;
and you also, who honor the accuser of Zeus on account of his artistic
skill. And I ridicule the skill of Myron, who made a heifer and upon it
a Victory because by carrying off the daughter of Agenor it had borne
away the prize for adultery and lewdness. The Olynthian Herodotus made
statues of Glycera the courtezan and Argeia the harper. Bryaxis made a
statue of Pasiphae; and, by having a memorial of her lewdness, it seems
to have been almost your desire that the women of the present time
should be like her. [3] A certain Melanippe was a wise woman, and for
that reason Lysistratus made her statue. But, forsooth, you will not
believe that among us there are wise women!

Chapter XXXIV: Ridicule of
the Statues Erected by the
Greeks

Worthy of very great honor,
certainly, was the tyrant Bhalaris,
who devoured sucklings, and accordingly is exhibited by the workmanship
of Polystratus the Ambraciot, even to this day, as a very wonderful
man! The Agrigentines dreaded to look on that countenance of his,
because of his cannibalism; but people of culture now make it their
boast that they behold him in his statue! Is it not shameful that
fratricide is honored by you who look on the statues of Polynices and
Eteocles, and that you have not rather buried them with their maker
Pythagoras? Destroy these memorials of iniquity! Why should I
contemplate with admiration the figure of the woman who bore thirty
children, merely for the sake of the artist Periclymenus? One ought to
turn away with disgust from one who bore off the fruits of great
incontinence, and whom the Romans compared to a sow, which also on a
like account, they say, was deemed worthy of a mystic worship. Ares
committed adultery with Aphrodite, and Andron made an image of their
offspring Harmonia. Sophron, who committed to writing trifles and
absurdities, was more celebrated for his skill in casting metals, of
which specimens exist even now. And not only have his tales kept the
fabulist Aesop in everlasting remembrance, but also the plastic art of
Aristodemus has increased his celebrity. How is it then that you, who
have so many poetesses whose productions are mere trash, and
innumerable courtesans, and worthless men, are not ashamed to slander
the reputation of our women? What care I to know that Euanthe gave
birth to an infant in the Peripatus, or to gape with wonder at the art
of Callistratus, or to fix my gaze on the Neaera of Calliades? For she
was a courtesan. Lais was a prostitute, and Turnus made her a monument
of prostitution. Why are you not ashamed of the fornication of
Hephaestion, even though Philo has represented him very artistically?
And for what reason do you honor the hermaphrodite Ganymede by
Leochares, as if you possessed something admirable? Praxiteles even
made a statue of a woman with the stain of impurity upon it. It
behooved you, repudiating everything of this kind, to seek what is
truly worthy of attention, and not to turn with disgust from our mode
of life while receiving with approval the shameful productions of
Philaenis and Elephantis.

Chapter XXXV: Tatian Speaks
as an Eyewitness

The things which I have thus set
before you I have not learned
at second hand. I have visited many lands; I have followed rhetoric,
like yourselves; I have fallen in with many arts and inventions; and
finally, when sojourning in the city of the Romans, I inspected the
multiplicity of statues brought thither by you: for I do not attempt,
as is the custom with many, to strengthen 80

my own views by the opinions of
others, but I wish to give you
a distinct account of what I myself have seen and felt. So, bidding
farewell to the arrogance of Romans and the idle talk of Athenians, and
all their ill-connected opinions, I embraced our barbaric philosophy. I
began to show how this was more ancient than your institutions, [1] but
left my task unfinished, in order to discuss a matter which demanded
more immediate attention; but now it is time I should attempt to speak
concerning its doctrines. Be not offended with our teaching, nor
undertake an elaborate reply filled with trifling and ribaldry, saying,
"Tatian, aspiring to be above the Greeks, above the infinite number of
philosophic inquirers, has struck out a new path, and embraced the
doctrines of Barbarians." For what grievance is it, that men manifestly
ignorant should be reasoned with by a man of like nature with
themselves? Or how can it be irrational, according to your own sophist,
[2] to grow old always learning something?

Chapter XXXVI: Testimony of
the Chaldeans to the Antiquity
of Moses

But let Homer be not later than
the Trojan war; let it be
granted that he was contemporary with it, or even that he was in the
army of Agamemnon, and, if any so please, that he lived before the
invention of letters. The Moses before mentioned will be shown to have
been many years older than the taking of Troy, and far more ancient
than the building of Troy, or than Tros and Dardanus. To demonstrate
this I will call in as witnesses the Chaldeans, the Phoenicians and the
Egyptians. And what more need I say? For it behooves one who professes
to persuade his hearers to make his narrative of events very concise.
Berosus, a Babylonian, a priest of their god Belus, born in the time of
Alexander, composed for Antiochus, the third after him, the history of
the Chaldeans in three books; and, narrating the acts of the kings, he
mentions one of them, Nabuchodonosor by name, who made war against the
Phoenicians and the Jews,events which we know were announced by our
prophets, and which happened much later than the age of Moses, seventy
years before the Persian empire. But Berosus is a very trustworthy man,
and of this Juba is a witness, who, writing concerning the Assyrians,
says that he learned the history from Berosus: there are two books of
his concerning the Assyrians.

Chapter XXXVII: Testimony of
the Phoenicians

After the Chaldeans, the testimony
of the Phoenicians is as
follows. There were among them three men, Theodotus, Hypsicrates, and
Mochus; Chaitus translated their books into Greek, and also composed
with exactness the lives of the philosophers. Now, in the histories of
the aforesaid writers it is shown that the abduction of Europa happened
under one of the kings, and an account is given of the coming of
Menelaus into Phoenicia, and of the matters relating to Chiramus, [3]
who gave his daughter in marriage to Solomon the king of the Jews, and
supplied wood of all kind of trees for the building of the temple.
Menander of Pergamus composed a history concerning the same things. But
the age of Chiramus is somewhere about the Trojan war; but Solomon, the
contemporary of Chiramus, lived much later than the age of Moses.

Chapter XXXVIII: The
Egytpians Place Moses in the Reign of
Inachus

Of the Egyptians also there are
accurate chronicles. Ptolemy,
not the king, but a priest of Mendes, is the interpreter of their
affairs. This writer, narrating the acts of the kings, says that the
departure of the Jews from Egypt to the places whither they went
occurred in the time of king Amosis, under the leadership of Moses. He
thus speaks: "Amosis lived in the time of king Inachus." After him,
Apion the grammarian, a man most highly esteemed, in the fourth book of
his AEgyptiaca (there are five books of his), besides many other
things, says that Amosis destroyed Avaris in the time of the Argive
Inachus, as the Mendesian Ptolemy wrote in his annals. But the time
from Inachus to the taking of Troy occupies twenty generations. The
steps of the demonstration are the following:-

Chapter XXXIX: Catalogue of
the Argive Kings

The kings of the Argives were
these: Inachus, Phoroneus, Apis,
Criasis, Triopas, Argeius, Phorbas, Crotopas, Sthenelaus, Danaus,
Lynceus, Proetus, Abas, Acrisius, Perseus, Sthenelaus, Eurystheus,
Atreus, Thyestes, and Agamemnon, in the eighteenth year of whose reign
Troy was taken. And every intelligent person will most carefully
observe that, according to the tradition of the Greeks, they possessed
no historical composition; for Cadmus, who taught them letters, came
into Boeotia many generations later. But after Inachus, under
Phoroneus, a check was with difficulty given to their savage and
nomadic life, and they entered upon a new order of things. Wherefore,
if Moses is shown to be contemporary with Inachus, he is four hundred
years older than the Trojan war. But this is demonstrated from the
succession of the Attic, [and of the Macedonian, the Ptolemaic, and the
Antiochian] [1] kings. Hence, if the most illustrious deeds among the
Greeks were recorded and made known after Inachus, it is manifest that
this must have been after Moses. In the time of Phoroneus, who was
after Inachus, Ogygus is mentioned among the Athenians, in whose time
was the first deluge; and in the time of Phorbas was Actaeus, from whom
Attica was called Actaea; and in the time of Triopas were Prometheus,
and Epimetheus, and Arias, and Cecrops of double nature, and Io; in the
time of Crotopas was the burning of Phaethon and the flood of
Deucalion; in the time of Sthenelus was the reign of Amphictyon and the
coming of Danaus into Peloponnesus, and the founding of Dardania by
Dardanus, and the return of Europa from phoenicia to Crete; in the time
of Lynceus was the abduction of Kore, and the founding of the temple in
Eleusis, and the husbandry of Triptolemus, and the coming of Cadmus to
Thebes, and the reign of Minos; in the time of Proetus was the war of
Eumolpus against the Athenians; in the time of Acrisius was the coming
over of Pelops from Phrygia, and the coming of Ion to Athens, and the
second Cecrops, and the deeds of Perseus and Dionysus, and Musaeus, the
disciple of Orpheus; and in the reign of Agamemnon Troy was taken.

Chapter XL: Moses More
Ancient and Credible Than the
Heathen Heroes

Therefore, from what has been said
it is evident that Moses was
older than the ancient heroes, wars, and demons. And we ought rather to
believe him, who stands before them in point of age, than the Greeks,
who, without being aware of it, [2] drew his doctrines [as] from a
fountain. For many of the sophists among them, stimulated by curiosity,
endeavored to adulterate whatever they learned from Moses, [3] and from
those who have philosophized like him, first that they might be
considered as having something of their own, and secondly, that
covering up by a certain rhetorical artifice whatever things they did
not understand, they might misrepresent the truth as if it were a
fable. But what the learned among the Greeks have said concerning our
polity and the history of our laws, and how many and what kind of men
have written of these things, will be shown in the treatise against
those who have discoursed of divine things. [4]]

Chapter XLI

But the matter of principal
importance is to endeavor with all
accuracy to make it clear that Moses is not only older than Homer, but
than all the writers that were before him--older than Linus, Philammon,
Thamyris, Amphion, Musaeus, Orpheus, Demodocus, Phemius, Sibylla,
Epimenides of Crete, who came to Sparta, Aristaeus of Proconnesus, who
wrote the Arimaspia, Asbolus the Centaur, Isatis, Drymon, Euclus the
Cyprian, Horus the Samian, and Pronapis the Athenian. Now, Linus was
the teacher of Hercules, but Hercules preceded the Trojan war by one
generation; and this is manifest from his son Tlepolemus, who served in
the army against Troy. And Orpheus lived at the same time as Hercules;
moreover, it is said that all the works attributed to him were composed
by Onomacritus the Athenian, who lived during the reign of the
Pisistratids, about the fiftieth Olympiad. Musaeus was a disciple of
Orpheus. Amphion, since he preceded the siege of Troy by two
generations, forbids our collecting further particulars about him for
those who are desirous of information. Demodocus and Phemius lived at
the very time of the Trojan war; for the one resided with the suitors,
and the other with the Phaeacians. Thamyris and Philammon were not much
earlier than these. Thus, concerning their several performances in each
kind, and their times and the record of them, we have written very
fully, and, as I think, with all exactness. But, that we may complete.
what is still wanting, I will give my explanation respecting the men
who are esteemed wise. Minos, who has been thought to excel in every
kind of wisdom, and mental acuteness, and legislative capacity, lived
in the time of Lynceus, who reigned after Danaus in the eleventh
generation after Inachus. Lycurgus, who was born long after the taking
of Troy, gave laws to the Lacedemonians. Draco is found to have lived
about the thirty-ninth Olympiad, Solon about the forty-sixth, and
Pythagoras about the sixty-second. We have shown that the Olympiads
commenced 407 years after the taking of Troy. These facts being
demonstrated, we shall briefly remark concerning the age of the seven
wise men. The oldest of these, Thales, lived about the fiftieth
Olympiad; and I have already spoken briefly of those who came after
him.

Chapter XLII: Concluding
Statement as to the Author

These things, O Greeks, I Tatian,
a disciple of the barbarian
philosophy, [5] have composed for you. I was born in the land of the
Assyrians, having been first instructed in your doctrines, and
afterwards in those which I now undertake to proclaim. Henceforward,
knowing who God is and what is His work, I present myself to you
prepared for an examination [1] concerning my doctrines, while I adhere
immovably to that mode of life which is according to God. [2]

FRAGMENTS. [3]

I.

IN his treatise, Concerning
Perfection according to the Savior,
he writes, "Consent indeed fits for prayer, but fellowship in
corruption weakens supplication. At any rate, by the permission he
certainly, though delicately, forbids; for while he permits them to
return to the same on account of Satan and incontinence, he exhibits a
man who will attempt to serve two masters--God by the 'consent' (1 Cor.
vii. 5), but by want of consent, incontinence, fornication, and the
devil."--CLEM. ALEX: Strom., iii. C. 12.

II.

A certain person inveighs against
generation, calling it
corruptible and destructive; and some one does violence [to Scripture],
applying to pro-creation the Saviour's words, "Lay not up treasure on
earth, where moth and rust corrupt;" and he is not ashamed to add to
these the words of the prophet: "You all shall grow old as a garment,
and the moth shall devour you."

And, in like manner, they adduce
the saying concerning the
resurrection of the dead, "The sons of that world neither marry nor are
given in marriage."--CLEM. ALEX.: iii. c. 12, 86.

III.

Tatian, who maintaining the
imaginary flesh of Christ,
pronounces all sexual connection impure, who was also the very violent
heresiarch of the Encratites, employs an argument of this sort: "If any
one sows to the flesh, of the flesh he shall reap corruption;" but he
sows to the flesh who is joined to a woman; therefore he who takes a
wife and sows in the flesh, of the flesh he shall reap
corruption.--HIERON.: Com. in Ep. ad Gal.

IV.

Seceding from the Church, and
being elated and puffed up by a
conceit of his teacher, [4] as if he were superior to the rest, he
formed his own peculiar type of doctrine. Imagining certain invisible
Aeons like those of Valentinus, and denouncing marriage as defilement
and fornication in the same way as Marcion and Saturninus, and denying
the salvation of Adam as an opinion of his own.--IRENAEUS: Adv. Hoer.,
i. 28.

V.

Tatian attempting from time to
time to make use of Paul's
language, that in Adam all die, but ignoring that "where sir, abounded,
grace has much more abounded."--IRENAEUS: Adv. Heres., iii. 37.

VI.

Against Tatian, who says that the
words, "Let there be light,"
are to be taken as a prayer. If He who uttered it knew a superior God,
how is it that He says, "I am God, and there is none beside me"?

He said that there are punishments
for blasphemies, foolish
talking, and licentious words, which are punished and chastised by the
Logos. And he said that women were punished on account of their hair
and ornaments by a power placed over those things, which also gave
strength to Samson by his hair, and punishes those who by the ornament
of their hair are urged on to fornication.--CLEM. ALEX.: Frag.

VII.

But Tatian, not understanding that
the expression "Let there
be" is not always precative but sometimes imperative, most impiously
imagined concerning God, who said "Let there be light," that He prayed
rather than commanded light to be, as if, as he impiously thought, God
was in darkness.--ORIGEN: De Orat.

VIII.

Tatian separates the old man and
the new, but not, as we say,
understanding the old man to be the law, and the new man to be the
Gospel. We agree with him in saying the same thing, but not in the
sense he wishes, abrogating the law as if it belonged to another
God.--CLEM. ALEX.: Strom., iii. 12.

IX.

Tatian condemns and rejects not
only marriage, but also meats
which God has created for use.--HIERON.: Adv. Jovin., i. 3.

X.

"But ye gave the Nazarites wine to
drink, and commanded the
prophets, saying, Prophesy not." On this, perhaps, Tatian the chief of
the Encratites endeavors to build his heresy, asserting that wine is
not to be drunk, since it was 83

commanded in the law that the
Nazarites were not to drink wine,
and now those who give the Nazarites wine are accused by the
prophet.--HIERON.: Com. in Amos.

XI.

Tatian, the patriarch of the
Encratites, who himself rejected
some of Paul's Epistles, believed this especially, that is [addressed]
to Tires, ought to be declared to be the apostle's, thinking little of
the assertion of Marcion and others, who agree with him on this
point.--HIERON.: Proef. in Com. ad Tit.

XII.

[Archelaus (A.D. 280), Bishop of
Carrha in Mesopotamia, classes
his countryman Tatian with "Marcion, Sabellius, and others who have
made up for themselves a peculiar science," i.e., a theology of their
own.--ROUTH: Reliquioe, tom. v. p. 137. But see Edinburgh Series of
this work, vol. xx. p. 267.]